Who Was Surendra Koli? Man Acquitted In Nithari Killings Found Dead In Haridwar

Surendra Koli, who was acquitted last year by the Supreme Court of the 2006 Nithari serial killings, was found dead in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar on Friday. Police suspect that he died by suicide, though the final cause of death remained to be ascertained.

Koli’s body was found hanging near a tea stall he had reportedly been operating on Sapt Sarovar Road, opposite the Lal Mata Temple. No suicide note was recovered, according to police.

“We recovered the body of a man from the Saprishi area. The police have identified him as Surender Kohli. It appears that he died by suicide. The forensic team has arrived and is examining the body,” police officer Shishupal Singh Negi said as reported by the Indian Express.

“The body was found hanging. This is all that we have been able to ascertain so far,” he added.

Originally from the Bhikiyasen area of Uttarakhand’s Almora district, Koli had reportedly moved to Haridwar after his release from prison and had been living there for several months. Police said his family had been informed while an investigation into his death was underway.

Nithari Killings Case 2006

Koli worked as a domestic help at businessman Moninder Singh Pandher’s House D-5 in Noida’s Sector 31, close to Nithari village, where human remains of more than 15 people were recovered from a drain and the open area behind Pandher’s property in 2006.

Several children and young women had been reported missing from Nithari and surrounding areas. The discovery of skulls, skeletal remains and pieces of clothing near D-5 brought the disappearances into national focus. The property was soon described in media reports as a “house of horrors”.

Koli and Pandher were arrested on December 29, 2006. The cases involved allegations of abduction, sexual assault and murder.

The Uttar Pradesh Police initially investigated the deaths before the cases were transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation in January 2007. The agency subsequently filed 16 chargesheets arising from the disappearances and killings.

Convictions, Death Sentences and Years in Prison

Koli was convicted in several cases by trial courts and repeatedly sentenced to death. One of the most prominent cases concerned the rape and murder of 14-year-old Rimpa Haldar.

The prosecution’s case relied substantially on a confession Koli made before a magistrate, along with the recovery of remains from the area behind Pandher’s house. Koli’s lawyers later challenged the confession and the manner in which the recoveries were connected to him.

In 2011, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence in the Haldar case, describing him as a “serial killer” and classifying the crime among the “rarest of rare” cases.

His mercy petition was later rejected and a death warrant was issued in 2014. The execution was stayed following a legal challenge. In January 2015, the Allahabad High Court commuted his death sentence to life imprisonment, citing the prolonged delay in deciding his mercy plea.

Between 2010 and 2021, Koli faced trials in several other cases connected with the Nithari killings. His convictions kept him in prison even as questions over the investigation and the evidence continued to reach higher courts.

Koli's Acquittal

A decisive turn came in October 2023, when the Allahabad High Court acquitted Koli in 12 cases and Pandher in two. The court held that the prosecution had failed to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt and pointed to shortcomings in the investigation.

The judgment questioned the evidentiary value of Koli’s alleged confession and the prosecution’s reliance on the recovery of remains from an open area behind D-5. It found that the recoveries and forensic material did not establish the necessary connection between Koli and the crimes.

The CBI, the Uttar Pradesh government and some victims’ families challenged the acquittals. In July 2025, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and allowed the High Court’s findings to stand.

One conviction, however, remained against Koli in the Rimpa Haldar case. He approached the Supreme Court through a curative petition, arguing that the conviction rested on substantially the same evidentiary foundation that had been rejected in the companion cases.

In November 2025, the Supreme Court accepted the petition and set aside the final conviction. The court held that the conviction could not survive when the underlying evidence had already been discredited in the related cases. It reiterated that the gravity of an offence could not allow suspicion to replace proof beyond reasonable doubt.

The ruling left Koli acquitted in all the Nithari cases against him and cleared the way for his release.